In this article

ASP.NET Core fundamentals

In this article

This article is an overview of key topics for understanding how to develop ASP.NET Core apps.

The Startup class

The Startup class is where:

Any services required by the app are configured.

The request handling pipeline is defined.

Code to configure (or register) services is added to the Startup.ConfigureServices method. Services are components that are used by the app. For example, an Entity Framework Core context object is a service.

Code to configure the request handling pipeline is added to the Startup.Configure method. The pipeline is composed as a series of middleware components. For example, a middleware might handle requests for static files or redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS. Each middleware performs asynchronous operations on an HttpContext and then either invokes the next middleware in the pipeline or terminates the request.

Dependency injection (services)

ASP.NET Core has a built-in dependency injection (DI) framework that makes configured services available to an app's classes. One way to get an instance of a service in a class is to create a constructor with a parameter of the required type. The parameter can be the service type or an interface. The DI system provides the service at runtime.

Here's a class that uses DI to get an Entity Framework Core context object. The highlighted line is an example of constructor injection:

Middleware

The request handling pipeline is composed as a series of middleware components. Each component performs asynchronous operations on an HttpContext and then either invokes the next middleware in the pipeline or terminates the request.

By convention, a middleware component is added to the pipeline by invoking its Use... extension method in the Startup.Configure method. For example, to enable rendering of static files, call UseStaticFiles.

The highlighted code in the following example configures the request handling pipeline:

The host

An ASP.NET Core app builds a host on startup. The host is an object that encapsulates all of the app's resources, such as:

An HTTP server implementation

Middleware components

Logging

DI

Configuration

The main reason for including all of the app's interdependent resources in one object is lifetime management: control over app startup and graceful shutdown.

The code to create a host is in Program.Main and follows the builder pattern. Methods are called to configure each resource that is part of the host. A builder method is called to pull it all together and instantiate the host object.

ASP.NET Core 2.x uses Web Host (the WebHost class) for web apps. The framework provides CreateDefaultBuilder to set up a host with commonly used options, such as the following:

Advanced host scenarios

Web Host is designed to include an HTTP server implementation, which isn't needed for other kinds of .NET apps. Starting in 2.1, Generic Host (Host class) is available for any .NET Core app to use—not just ASP.NET Core apps. Generic Host lets you use cross-cutting features such as logging, DI, configuration, and app lifetime management in other types of apps. For more information, see Generic Host.

Generic Host is available for any .NET Core app to use—not just ASP.NET Core apps. Generic Host lets you use cross-cutting features such as logging, DI, configuration, and app lifetime management in other types of apps. For more information, see Generic Host.

You can also use the host to run background tasks. For more information, see Background tasks.

Servers

An ASP.NET Core app uses an HTTP server implementation to listen for HTTP requests. The server surfaces requests to the app as a set of request features composed into an HttpContext.

Kestrel is a cross-platform web server. Kestrel is often run in a reverse proxy configuration using IIS. In ASP.NET Core 2.0 or later, Kestrel can be run as a public-facing edge server exposed directly to the Internet.

IIS HTTP Server is a server for windows that uses IIS. With this server, the ASP.NET Core app and IIS run in the same process.

HTTP.sys is a server for Windows that isn't used with IIS.

ASP.NET Core provides the Kestrel cross-platform server implementation. In ASP.NET Core 2.0 or later, Kestrel can be run as a public-facing edge server exposed directly to the Internet. Kestrel is often run in a reverse proxy configuration with Nginx or Apache.

ASP.NET Core provides the Kestrel cross-platform server implementation. In ASP.NET Core 2.0 or later, Kestrel can be run as a public-facing edge server exposed directly to the Internet. Kestrel is often run in a reverse proxy configuration with Nginx or Apache.

Kestrel is a cross-platform web server. Kestrel is often run in a reverse proxy configuration using IIS. In ASP.NET Core 2.0 or later, Kestrel can be run as a public-facing edge server exposed directly to the Internet.

HTTP.sys is a server for Windows that isn't used with IIS.

ASP.NET Core provides the Kestrel cross-platform server implementation. In ASP.NET Core 2.0 or later, Kestrel can be run as a public-facing edge server exposed directly to the Internet. Kestrel is often run in a reverse proxy configuration with Nginx or Apache.

ASP.NET Core provides the Kestrel cross-platform server implementation. In ASP.NET Core 2.0 or later, Kestrel can be run as a public-facing edge server exposed directly to the Internet. Kestrel is often run in a reverse proxy configuration with Nginx or Apache.

Configuration

ASP.NET Core provides a configuration framework that gets settings as name-value pairs from an ordered set of configuration providers. There are built-in configuration providers for a variety of sources, such as .json files, .xml files, environment variables, and command-line arguments. You can also write custom configuration providers.

For example, you could specify that configuration comes from appsettings.json and environment variables. Then when the value of ConnectionString is requested, the framework looks first in the appsettings.json file. If the value is found there but also in an environment variable, the value from the environment variable would take precedence.

Environments

Execution environments, such as Development, Staging, and Production, are a first-class notion in ASP.NET Core. You can specify the environment an app is running in by setting the ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT environment variable. ASP.NET Core reads that environment variable at app startup and stores the value in an IHostingEnvironment implementation. The environment object is available anywhere in the app via DI.

The following sample code from the Startup class configures the app to provide detailed error information only when it runs in development:

The ILogger interface lets you pass any number of fields to the logging provider. The fields are commonly used to construct a message string, but the provider can also send them as separate fields to a data store. This feature makes it possible for logging providers to implement semantic logging, also known as structured logging.

Routing

A route is a URL pattern that is mapped to a handler. The handler is typically a Razor page, an action method in an MVC controller, or a middleware. ASP.NET Core routing gives you control over the URLs used by your app.

Error handling

Make HTTP requests

An implementation of IHttpClientFactory is available for creating HttpClient instances. The factory:

Provides a central location for naming and configuring logical HttpClient instances. For example, a github client can be registered and configured to access GitHub. A default client can be registered for other purposes.

Supports registration and chaining of multiple delegating handlers to build an outgoing request middleware pipeline. This pattern is similar to the inbound middleware pipeline in ASP.NET Core. The pattern provides a mechanism to manage cross-cutting concerns around HTTP requests, including caching, error handling, serialization, and logging.

Integrates with Polly, a popular third-party library for transient fault handling.

Manages the pooling and lifetime of underlying HttpClientMessageHandler instances to avoid common DNS problems that occur when manually managing HttpClient lifetimes.

Adds a configurable logging experience (via ILogger) for all requests sent through clients created by the factory.

Content root

The content root is the base path to any private content used by the app, such as its Razor files. By default, the content root is the base path for the executable hosting the app. An alternative location can be specified when building the host.

Web root

The web root (also known as webroot) is the base path to public, static resources, such as CSS, JavaScript, and image files. The static files middleware will only serve files from the web root directory (and sub-directories) by default. The web root path defaults to <content root>/wwwroot, but a different location can be specified when building the host.

In Razor (.cshtml) files, the tilde-slash ~/ points to the web root. Paths beginning with ~/ are referred to as virtual paths.